Eddie
God bless Julianne Moore, for her unashamed red hair and freckles. So many redheads disappoint in their inexplicable self-negating desire to look like all the other actresses in Hollywood (Nicole and Lindsay, I'm talking to both of you. whhhhyyyyy?). Julianne's freckles spot that porcelain skin in such a real way, a way you hardly ever see onscreen. I always appreciate it when filmmakers light her so you can see them. I do love staring at her face and I'm pleased to report that Savage Grace, the story of the scandalous marriage, divorce and demise of socialite Barbara Baekaland, gives fans ample opportunity to do so. Julianne's beauty hasn't been this magnified onscreen since way back in 1999's The End of the Affair. This new film doesn't have the romantic and intellectual force of that earlier novel-to-screen adaptation but it's nice to see Julianne dolled up again. And with a sex drive too! In fact, I think Savage Grace would have been better if they'd pushed Barbara's outre sexuality a little further. A little more of, say, Isabelle Huppert's in-your-face perversion in Ma Mére or The Piano Teacher might've considerably strengthened the film. Anybody who was going to be scared away by the subject matter wouldn't be sitting in the theater anyway.
Julianne with two of her boys, Hugh Dancy & Eddie Redmayne
But back to Julianne's face. She has such a great and improbable mix of both solidity and eery abstraction. It's why she's so effective at playing women who are indisputably there --they make their presence known -- but also far, far away either through internal despair, self delusion, addictions or all of the above. The only character among her handful of most celebrated creations that doesn't fit this mold is Carol White from [safe]. There's no solidity to that one at all. A strong gust of wind could blow the poor creature away.
I'll say more about Savage Grace later... am still turning it over in my head and it doesn't open for another month, but god bless the casting people for finding her an appropriately freckly son in Eddie Redmayne. Eddie is one of those actors that the French might call 'jolie-laide' that is to say that he's somehow off putting and attractive simultaneously, a rather ideal look for the character of her overly adored lost-boy son.
UPDATED. I've included two trailers below. There's unfortunately another clip making the web rounds that is NOT a trailer but being labelled as such on YouTube and elsewhere. It's several scenes strung together for nearly 10 minutes. Probably gives too much of the movie away. Here's two real things, first the international trailer...
and then the US trailer
I think it's fun to suss out the differences in approach and general dramatic temperament. Here's Movie Marketing Madness's take on what they're selling and how well they're selling it.
